Jon Spencer's Ohio State report card

Sep. 15, 2013

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Ohio State quarterback Kenny Guiton breaks the tackle of California's Jalen Jefferson during the second half of Saturday's game in Berkeley, Calif. Guiton threw four touchdown passes in Ohio State's 52-34 victory. / AP

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OFFENSIVE LINE

The Buckeyes scored twice on fourth-and-goal from the 1 and converted four times on fourth down. That doesn’t happen if the front five isn’t doing its job — and if Urban Meyer doesn’t have confidence in that crew. Or maybe he was trying to breed confidence. Whatever, both gambles worked and good thing, because there would have been hell to pay had they backfired against a team that gave up more than 400 yards total offense in the first half to an FCS school the week before. Almost overlooked because of all the fourth down success was that OSU had over 300 yards rushing and over 600 yards total offense

GRADE: A

RUNNING GAME

Perhaps because OSU was without its most effective runner (Braxton Miller), freshman dynamo Dontre Wilson got involved early. His first carry went for 26 yards and he also took a shovel pass 32 yards in the opening period. Everyone will remember Kenny Guiton throwing four TDs in his first career start, but he also had a huge 33-yard gain on fourth down from the Cal 38 to set up one of Jordan Hall’s three short TD runs when the game was far from settled. The bulk of the ground game was again handled by Jordan Hall (30 carries, 168 yards rushing.) It will be interesting to see if that changes next week with Carlos Hyde back.

GRADE: A

PASSING GAME

Devin Smith had a career-high seven catches last week vs. San Diego State, but he had more yards on his first catch (90) Saturday than he had vs. the Aztecs. How about that bomb on the first series of Kenny Guiton’s first career start? His play-action on OSU’s second series faked out the Fox Sports cameramen as Guiton laid the ball perfectly out there for Smith’s over-the-shoulder catch in the end zone for a 47-yard TD, one of four scoring passes on the day for Kenny G. He had more zip on the ball then he did vs. SDSU and his accuracy, even on long incompletions, was impressive.

GRADE: A

DEFENSIVE LINE

Freshman Joey Bosa, starting for the injured Adolphus Washington, immediately made his presence felt, dropping running back Brendan Bigelow for a two-yard loss on Cal’s first play. Bigelow had a monster game last year against the Buckeyes (4 carries, 160 yards, 2 TDs), but got taken out of the equation early because of the early deficit. We even saw big Chris Carter get an early sack as OSU rotated linemen to better deal with Cal’s up-tempo attack.

GRADE: B

LINEBACKERS

It took three games, but we finally got that impact play we’ve been looking for from Ryan Shazier and it came early as he shook free from the hold of one of the Bears on the backside to hit QB Jared Goff and force a fumble that set up OSU’s third TD of the first quarter. But it was an inexcusable on Shazier’s part to commit a personal foul with his late hit out of bounds on Goff. The Buckeyes had all the momentum, having scored on their previous drive. So why give the Bears an opening? With OSU deploying more nickle and dime, Cal found seams that might have been filled by an LB. Case in point: the 42-yard screen pass to Chris Harper for a TD.

GRADE: C

DEFENSIVE BACKS

Confusion in the secondary resulted in an easy 61-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to James Grisom in the first quarter. Christian Bryant, who was involved in that mess with Bradley Roby and Corey “Pittsburgh” Brown, atoned with an interception off a flea-flicker on Cal’s next series to set up a field goal. The entire secondary had its hands-full with Cal’s freshman QB, including Roby, the All-America candidate who got beat for one TD despite tight coverage. Goff put up some big numbers (31 of 53, 371 yards, 3 TDs) and that doesn’t include the open receivers he overthrew. Roby and Brown both had picks go through their hands.

GRADE: C

SPECIAL TEAMS

Drew Basil, who had a 39-yard field goal, was back to booming his kickoffs in the end zone or to the goal-line. Evan Spencer’s illegal block to the back on the punt return team forced OSU to start its first series from the 6, but Devin Smith’s 90-yard TD catch two plays later erased that blunder. Cameron Johnston had a 61-yard punt that will be nice for the average, but just when it looked like the Buckeyes had blown it open in the second half Cal ran a kickoff back near midfield to set up a touchdown. OSU also got burned on a fake punt that set up a field goal.

GRADE: C

COACHING

We heard from the Buckeyes that this was a “business” trip and they certainly played that way at the outset. But it was discouraging to see the Buckeyes seemingly take the foot off the gas for the second time in three weeks, committing mental and physical blunders after it was 21-0. It might have worked vs. Buffalo, but you’re flirting with disaster against a team as explosive as Cal. Loved the aggressiveness again, with Urban Meyer four times going for it on fourth down — and making it every time, twice for TDs. Running hurry-up in the red zone confused the Bears. Not sure why, since they see it from their offense every day.